The IMB/Deloitte Digital Design Sprint 2024
Last month, the annual BSc Information Management for Business (IMB) and Deloitte Digital Design Sprint took place on UCL’s Bloomsbury Campus with approximately 80 students participating in the two-day event. Designed to enable students to tackle pressing business issues through the use of Design Thinking, the Design Sprint saw current IMB and MSc Human Computer Interaction students working alongside each other.
The Design Sprint also saw the return of IMB alumni (and former Sprint participants) and the participation of a team of Ukrainian students from Svitlo, an online school providing free education and support to Ukrainian children. The Svitlo team was led by Oleksandra Petrova, a third-year IMB student and current employee of Svitlo Education.
What is the Design Sprint?
Every year, the Design Sprint enables students to work together to tackle some of the most pressing issues facing businesses today, utilising the latest Design Thinking tools and techniques. This year, 9 teams of UCL students and one team of Ukrainian students were able to select from a series of 4 different challenges that reflected the latest trends in Deloitte Digital’s client work:
- Sustainability
- Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)
- The appreciation of neurodiversity
- Strategy and digital transformation
The Deloitte Digital Team led by Rose Agnew, comprised Yas Caon, Sarah Al Abed and two former IMB students and Sprint participants now working for Deloitte - Allen Ilica and Dóra Szkurka.
Participating students from Ukraine hailed from a number of cities, including Odessa, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kiev, Donetsk and the Donbas, who pitched their business solution to the audience via video conference. The Design Sprint was extremely honoured to see their involvement in the event and were extremely impressed with their presentation.
Discussing the importance of this year’s Design Sprint, IMB Programme Director Maya Cara said, ‘UCL School of Management has strong links with the Ukrainian community, having already delivered a series of workshops for aspiring Ukrainian entrepreneurs. We were absolutely delighted to have a team of Svitlo students taking part in the Deloitte Digital/IMB Design Sprint. The Sprint is the annual highlight of the IMB programme and Svitlo’s involvement added an extra dimension. We are grateful to Rose Agnew and our partners at Deloitte Digital in making this possible and to Oleksandra Petrova, who supported the Svitlo students during the Sprint. This initiative exemplifies everything that UCL stands for and Oleksandra personifies the way in which our students and alumni deliver social impact in a challenging world.’
the winners
All presentations were judged by IMB and MSc Human Computer Interaction alumni, with the judging panel consisting of Rajul Alam, Stefania Hau, Catarina Santos and Deen Kobir. Student presentations provided an overwhelming demonstration of their tenacity and dedication, as well as the students’ incredible ability to tackle a number of challenges with a collaborative approach.
While the unequivocal focus of this year’s Design Sprint was teamwork, education and unity, there were two winning teams to celebrate: Crew for a Cause - who redesigned the UX for a charity in South Africa by incorporating video storytelling and an interactive map and tools to visualise the impact of a donation - and Pickles - a team who focused on businesses looking to supply locally sourced food.
Well done to all of the participating teams in this year’s Design Sprint - you were incredible!
about svitlo
Svitlo is a registered charity in England and Wales dedicated to supporting the young people and children of Ukraine through education. It is an online school providing free lessons to school children that are delivered in English. Many of the children involved in the organisation are refugees or have been displaced within Ukraine and other countries as a result of the conflict.
In addition, Svitlo provides a sense of community and support for students in the most challenging of circumstances and hopes to provide children with a sense of stability throughout this turbulent time. It helps children to improve their English skills, and also encourages the development of transferable skills, such as communication and analytical thinking.
Find out more about the BSc Information Management for Business programme at UCL School of Management or visit the UCL website to find out more about how the university is supporting students from Ukraine.
